[Active-l] (ACTION ITEM) (NATIONAL) Contact your Federal representatives to oppose the Federal anti-marriage amendment

[R'ykandar Korra'ti]

	Focus on the Family and other fundamentalist groups are STILL sending 
out NEW action items to demand an anti-gay marriage amendment to the 
Federal constitution. PLEASE, if you haven't, PLEASE call or write your 
senators or representatives in opposition to this. In fact, if you have 
written in, or called in, but not lately, please do so _again_. This 
isn't just Focus on the Family, this is all over the place.
					- Dara

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Gay Couple Appeals to 9th Circuit to Allow Marriage
(a Focus on the Family Action news brief)
April 3, 2006

[Received in email; no URL]

Two homosexual men in California have filed an appeal in
federal court claiming the U.S. Constitution's
equal-rights-protection guarantee gives them the right to
marry, The Associated Press reported.

Arthur Smelt and Christopher Hammer will go before the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday.

Gay-advocacy groups, such as Lambda Legal, are not
supporting the case because they fear a ruling against gay
marriage would set a federal precedent. Gay-marriage
supporters prefer to wage the battle against traditional
marriage at the state level.

Richard Gilbert, attorney for the homosexual couple, said
he disagrees with that tactic.

"You fight for your rights when your rights are being
denied," he said. "When the building is on fire, you don't
stand by and let the building burn down and say, 'We'll
fight the fire another day.' "

Bruce Hausknecht, judicial analyst for Focus on the Family
Action, said whether same-sex marriage advocates choose to
fight at the state or federal level, either approach
highlights the need for a federal marriage-protection
amendment to preserve traditional marriage.

"The state-by-state approach has stirred up grassroots
conservatives in the affected states, and the results have
been 19 states adding state marriage amendments to their
constitutions," he said. "The swing-for-the-fence approach
--using the federal courts -- has galvanized conservatives
in a concerted push for an amendment to the U.S.
Constitution defining marriage once and for all."

TAKE ACTION: Now more than ever it is important to
encourage your senators and representatives to support the
federal Marriage Protection Amendment. Contact them using
CitizenLink's Marriage Protection Amendment Action Center.

http://www.family.org/cforum/extras/a0031537.cfm

(The preceding story was paid for by Focus on the Family
Action.)